Budget Uncertainty Affects State Agencies

Rocky budget negotiations at the Mississippi Capital leave State Agencies' funding in question, with only a month until the new fiscal year begins. MPB’s Stephen Koranda has more.

Possible cuts next year could vary anywhere from a few percent, to double digits for many agencies, but right now no one knows what will happen.

“Its’ kind of hard to plan when you don’t know how much money you’ve got to plan with.”

Chris Epps is commissioner of the Department of Corrections. He says there are some areas where he might be able to save a little money, but he needs to know now.

“For example your private prison contracts are due. So obviously we’ve got to look at them and be real careful how we look at the per diem rate.”

Epps has cut the corrections budget in recent years by eliminating hundreds of jobs and creating efficiencies. He’s just hoping lawmakers will come through, because he says there’s nowhere else to cut.

“The only way to reduce the department of corrections budget is to release inmates and close camps. There’s no other way under God’s green earth to do it.”

But closing any facility isn’t easy. At the Department of Mental Health, significant cuts could mean hundreds of jobs lost, and shuttering treatment centers- which could eliminate hundreds of inpatient mental health beds. And there will have to be plans on what would happen to those patients. Ed LeGrand is Director of the Department of Mental Health.

“We’re going to have to have a July 1 implementation date regardless. The later the decision is made, the more quickly we’re going to have to react.”

Lawmakers will return to the capital today.